Monday, August 30, 2010

Some thoughts...

1 John 4: 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Thoughts for Monday...Our souls…crave…Love. To be loved, and to give love.

Imagine being motivated by love…

* Think about your everyday human relationships…Isn’t part of the dynamic of our relationships that we are insecure. We have jealousy, envy, bitterness, not being good enough, fear of our weakness to believe, we are afraid of someone leaving us, afraid of rejection, and the list goes on - I mean we spend so much of our energy living in that fear.

Love doesn’t thrive in the environment of fear.Fear doesn’t thrive in the environment of Love.

Fear determines the boundaries of your life. What you fear defines the parameters of your freedom. If you are afraid of heights you stay low. Afraid of the dark you keep the light on. Afraid of people or talking to people, you choose not to. Fear of spiders you stay away from my basement. :) Afraid of men, because of what some guy or father did to you…so you choose not to trust…you fill in the blank.

When you live in Love, you live outside of fear. When you live in Love, you live in desperation. When you live in Love, you live in Him.

And what happens so much is that we are motivated by fear than we are love. We are motivated by duty because of what we fear if we don’t. We are motivated by fear of being hurt…so we never truly love again.

The reality is we don’t know how to love because we have yet to experience God’s unconditional Love.God’s love doesn’t have disclaimers hidden in the fine print. Having said that, I don’t think I can really explain it. I totally believe it but without knowing exactly why I believe it or how to make it make sense to anyone else.

Let me try. A word we most often hear when we talk about the subject of God’s love is, "God’s love for us is an unconditional love." Meaning it is unqualified, absolute, without limitations or conditions.

Love moves God to you…and really only love can move you to God. 1 John. 3:19.

The proof that He loves you is that He has been loving you and I from the beginning…"It's in the pudding" whatever that phrase means...:)John 17:20-25